How to Create Print Ready Files using Photoshop

File Size: Create your Photoshop documents .25” larger than the final trim size of your document. This .25” is the ‘bleed’ area, where elements meant to print right to the edge of the page actually print beyond the edge. This ensures that when the printed pieces are trimmed, if the cut is a little off, your elements still print all the way to the edge. The actual area in the file that will be on the final printed piece is .125” in from each edge.

Resolution: Create your files at a minimum of 300 dpi. Anything less will result in choppy looking images. We are not responsible for poor print quality if you do not use the correct resolution. You cannot take a low resolution file (say 72 dpi) open it in Photoshop and upsample the resolution to 300. This will not improve the quality of the image. With the exception of stock photography purchased off the web, images captured off the web are not print quality. They are only 72 dpi.

Color Space: Please do not send RGB, LAB, Spot Color or Indexed color files. We can only print CMYK files. This is a limitation of the printing process. Keep in mind that scanners, monitors and digital cameras see color using the RGB color space, but printing equipment utilizes the CMYK color space. This will result in your colors looking slightly different on the monitor than on your printed piece. To keep this difference to a minimum, please adjust your monitor calibration to match final printed pieces. Hint: Once you get your images to where you like the way they look on screen, lighten them up just a little bit prior to going to print. This will allow for dot gain on press and is especially important in the midtone areas.

Layers: If you have created a layered document, when you are finished save the document as a .psd file with the layers intact. This creates a file for you that is easily editable in case changes are needed. Flatten your layers, convert color space to cmyk mode if you haven’t already, then save a second file as a tiff, pdf* or jpg with the image option set to high quality. This file is for you to upload, reducing file size and eliminating the need to include font files along with the tiff or jpg file when going to print. If you do not flatten your files and you have used a font we do not have, your job will be delayed while we contact you for new files.

To Save in JPG Format:

From the file menu, choose Save or Save As. In the Save or Save As window, choose JPEG format. Click on the Save button. In the JPEG options window, choose maximum quality of 12, baseline format, and click on the OK button. (This format is for final print files only. Do Not place jpg images in page layout files.)

To Save in TIFF Format:

From the file menu, choose Save or Save As. In the Save or Save As window, choose TIFF format. Click on the Save button. In the TIFF options window, either byte order is acceptable, whatever system you are working on. Please do not check LZW compression. (TIFF files are ok for final print files or for placed images.)

To Save in EPS Format:

From the file menu, choose Save or Save As. In the Save or Save As window, choose EPS format. Click on the Save button. In the EPS options window, choose a TIFF (8 bits/pixel) preview, and binary encoding. Leave all boxes unchecked. (TIFF files are ok for final print files or for placed images.)

To Save in PDF Format:

From the file menu, choose Save or Save As. In the Save or Save as window, choose Photoshop PDF format. Click on the Save button. In the PDF Options window, choose JPEG for Encoding, and a Quality of 12, Maximum. All other boxes remain unchecked. Click on Ok.

Misc:

Please do not send DCS, PICT, PSD, GIF or BMP files. These formats are either low resolution only, or not compatible with our output equipment.

Note: These instrucitons and screen captures were created using Photoshop v7 on a Macintosh. You may need to adjust slightly if you are using a different version or platform.